Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin talks to quarterback Johnny Manziel (2) during the third quarter of an NCAA college football game against Sam Houston State. / David J. Phillip AP

by George Schroeder, USA TODAY Sports

by George Schroeder, USA TODAY Sports

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - George H.W. Bush is nearly 2,000 miles from here, spending time with wife Barbara at their home in Maine. But on Saturday afternoon, the eyes of the 41st president, like so many others, will be upon Kyle Field.

"A win Saturday would be a continuation of, a building on, the process that Coach (Kevin) Sumlin initiated last season," Bush told USA TODAY Sports in an email. "It would keep that momentum going strong. At the same time, a loss would not kill that momentum â?? not by a long shot."

If the showdown with Alabama is easily the most anticipated of the college football season, it might be the most anticipated ever in Aggieland. "BTHO BAMA" T-shirts were hot sellers â?¦ in early August. During a booster function last summer, Texas A&M athletic director Eric Hyman joked about the Aggies being like the moon, because "both control the Tide." The buzz has been building for months. This week, it was essentially the only topic in town. And if nationally, the storyline is Nick Saban's attempt to corral Johnny Manziel â?? beware, because he has been workinWhg on this for 250 days! â?? the former President of the United States nailed the local narrative.

Saturday is huge. But it's only one of Texas A&M's salad days.

"We've had good programs in the past," Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin said. "They've come and gone. We've had good coaches in the past â?? they've come and gone. But we haven't had an athletic program as good as we have right now. It's not just football. It's everything else that comes along with it."

Much has come along in the last two years, since A&M's move from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference. In announcing the move, Loftin called it a "100-year decision," and predicted it would lead to unprecedented growth. But Loftin admits he didn't expect it to come so soon. No one did.

"There was so many unknowns last season with a new conference, new coach and quarterback," said Bush, adding he and the former First Lady "are Aggies to the core." His presidential library abuts the campus. The couple has been a fixture at A&M athletic events since leaving office 20 years ago.

"The tremendous success the team had caught everyone by surprise, it seems," Bush said. "They exceeded all expectations."

Since then, expectations have exploded. A fan base that approached the move to the SEC with excitement but also, according to Hyman, with "strong reservation or nervousness," is newly confident after a banner sports year: the Aggies ranked fifth nationally in the 2012-13 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup, which measures success in all sports.

Football led the surge. A year ago, reporters' questions for first-year coach Kevin Sumlin centered on how the Aggies would fare in college football's best conference. That theme is no more; the question among fans, at least, is how high and fast they'll rise.

"We've got a lot more to go," Hyman said, "but we passed that exam and we got a better grade than I think a lot of people thought we were going to. Because of that, (the excitement) is just added."

All-around boost

Momentum is a hard thing to measure, but start with a quick peek from the presidential suite on the 10th floor of Rudder Tower at Kyle Field, where a $450 million renovation and expansion is underway. When finished in 2015, capacity will increase from 82,589 to 102,500 â?? all of those seats, the school said, have already been sold â?? which would make it the third-largest college football stadium and the largest in the SEC. Although the idea of renovating the stadium had been simmering a long while, Loftin said in the past some had argued for decreasing capacity.

"But that was all before the conference change, the coaching change, Johnny Manziel," Loftin said. "They have all come along since that time and changed the thinking considerably."

Yeah, Manziel. Loftin called his impact "galvanizing." First, a few more stats: Texas A&M's licensing revenues were up 23% in 2011, when the Aggies announced they were leaving the Big 12, and then up 22 percent from that in 2012. Football-related donations increased from $15.7 million in 2011 to $17.7 million in 2012; the school has budged for $18.6 million this year.

Texas A&M experienced a 10 percent rise in applications for this school year, which isn't unusual for schools with athletic success. But A&M issued a standard number of offers of admission â?? and expected, based on history, that 8,700 students would accept. Instead, more than 10,000 did, leading to the largest freshman class in school history.

Those and other anecdotal statistics can be traced, officials say, to the move to the SEC, to the Aggies' 11-2 record last season â?? and also to Manziel's Heisman Trophy. A study commissioned by the school estimated Texas A&M reaped $37 million in value in media exposure from Nov. 10, 2012 through Jan. 6, 2013 (from beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa to routing Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl).

When Loftin talks of the increased recognition of the Texas A&M brand, which he hopes translates to promoting the entire university, he notes: "Our job is making sure we utilize that in an effective way to make sure people know more about Texas A&M than just about Johnny Football."

They know plenty about Johnny Football, for sure. Manziel's spectacular 2012 season has been well-chronicled, and so has his offseason. Loftin noted the heightened scrutiny that has attended Manziel â?? who was suspended for the first half of the season opener against Rice for his involvement in signing autographs for dealers â?? and said he is confident, "We've done all we can do as a university" to ensure compliance with NCAA rules, adding "it has been a challenge for us."

But the rewards have so far outweighed any risks. It wasn't all that long ago, Loftin said, when he would travel to conferences in other regions of the country, introduce himself as the Texas A&M president â?? and despite A&M's status as a major research university, he would hear questions about what it was like to live in Austin, where the rival University of Texas is located.

"That's not a problem anymore," he said.

Hooked on Aggies?

The end of the on-field rivalry (or at least a temporary pause) with the Longhorns is an unfortunate byproduct of the conference switch. But for the Aggies, an emergence from Texas' shadow is among the most delicious developments. It is lost on no one that their rise has coincided with the Longhorns' struggles â?? most notably in football, but other sports as well. Last Saturday night, when Texas lost at BYU, Aggies defensive back Toney Hurd Jr. sent a tweet: "Texas A&M is the university of Texas."

What did he mean?

"We have a lot of swagger and a lot of confidence right now," Hurd said. "We feel like we've kind of taken over the state in football and as a university as a whole."

If Hurd's tweet was incendiary, it also was a common sentiment, a long-held hope that Aggies believe might be becoming â?? or might have become â?? reality. But conquering the state of Texas is only part of it. For the football program, the aim is to become and remain an elite power. For the university, the objective is to promote the story of what former president Robert Gates called a "truly unique American institution."

For both goals, don't underestimate the impact of the victory over Alabama â?? or what another victory over the Tide could mean.

Manziel's performance in the upset in Tuscaloosa, Ala., probably won him the Heisman. It helped turn Texas A&M â?? football, and more â?? into a white-hot brand. And the Aggies believe it set the stage for more success.

"Anytime you beat the defending (and soon to repeat) national champions at home, it elevates your team and your program," Bush said. "As the saying goes, 'You gotta beat somebody to be somebody.' "

They have a similar opportunity Saturday. Top-ranked Alabama is the prohibitive favorite to win another national championship, which would be its third consecutive and fourth in five years. But where last November there was cautious optimism that this SEC move might actually work out, the Aggies now see Alabama as an obstacle to what has become certain ascendancy.

"Where you had trepidation, now there's exuberance," Hyman said. "There's excitement, and people can see that if you reach for your potential, what can happen. â?¦ To me, the potential here is unlimited."

Whatever happens Saturday, the Aggies are certain of this much:

"This is a fun time to be an Aggie," said R.C. Slocum, the former coach who is now a special adviser to Loftin. "All things right now are the best it's ever been."

George Schroeder, a national college football reporter for USA TODAY Sports, is on Twitter @GeorgeSchroeder.